William ballakd



UNITE sra ns ATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BALLARD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MAKING SHIP S KNEES.

Speccation of Letters Patent No. 10,854, dated May 2, 1854.

To all whom. t may concern.'

Be it known that I,`W1LLL\M BALLARD, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improve ment in Shiplnees; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference thereon.

The object of my invention is to avoid the expense and trouble of using the natural crook of timber for ship knees and at the same time produce as good or better ship knees as would be formed from timber with the natural crook. The nat-ure of my invention consists in the formation of ship knees of bent pieces of timber, with the convex surface so combined with the concave surface of an angular piece as to support the bent piece and prevent. it from straightening, and at the same time form an angle to fit between the beams or parts of the vessel to be supported by knees. Such knees may be formed from straight pieces of timber by bending, and two knees may be formed from one piece and thus the knees be connected together by the same piece intermediate the bent parts, and the knees may be formed to a square-insquare or out-square, as desired.

I will now describe my said invention by reference to the annexed drawing, in which- B, B represent beams of a vessel; O the clamp on which the beams and knees of a vessel rest.

K represents one knee and K2 another, both being formed from one piece of timber and are therefore connected together by such piece.

To facilitate the bending, the timber before being bent may be slitted with a saw, in which case the layers formed by the slit-- ting may be secured together by bolts, as shown in the drawing of knee K. The knee K2 is bent without being slit, showing that they can b-e formed in both ways.. The tend-- ency of such timber being to spring back or straighten after being bent, some means is necessary to prevent such result. Also it is necessary to complete the knee by making asquare corner to it between the parts to be supported by the knee. To accomplish the latter of these objects I work off a piece of timber to a concave surface on one side and fit it tothe convex surface of the bent piece terminating with an angle or a square corner on the opposite side to form the cor ner of the knee. This piece is shown in the drawing by D, and it is not material whether this corner piece be made of one solid piece or be composed of separate pieces firmly attached together.

To att-ain the former of the above objects, that is, the holding of the bent piece in the bent position, I dovetail or jog into the bent piece the ends of the piece applied to it to -form the corner as shown at m, and ln., in the drawing.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The formation of ship knees substantially as above described.

WILLM. BALLARD.

Witnesses z i Mnins B. ANDRUS, JAMES A. VAN RANsT. 

